![]()
p.11
1
âEVERY STRUGGLING CAUSE SHALL BE OURS . . .â
1880â8
Christabel Harriette Pankhurst was born on 22 September 1880 at 1 Drayton Terrace, Old Trafford, Manchester, England, the home of her radical parents, Dr Richard Pankhurst, a barrister, and his much younger wife Emmeline. Emmeline was twenty-two years old and Richard forty-five when this first of five children arrived. Since Richard thought that pretty names were indispensable for girls, he chose âChristabelâ as suggested by Coleridgeâs poem, âthe lovely lady Christabel whom her father loves so wellâ.1 Both parents were actively involved in the progressive causes of their day, especially womenâs suffrage and socialism. Over the next nine years, sisters and brothers for Christabel arrived with regularity â Estelle Sylvia (known as Sylvia) in 1882, Henry Francis Robert (âFrankâ) in 1884, Adela Constantia Mary in 1885 and Henry Francis (âHarryâ) in 1889. Sources of information about Christabelâs family background and childhood are mainly her autobiography, Unshackled, but especially her sister Sylviaâs The suffragette movement. The youngest Pankhurst daughter, Adela, also wrote some reminiscences but these are unpublished papers which have not been extensively mined. Although, unsurprisingly, all three Pankhurst daughters wrote differing accounts of events, as will be evident throughout this book, it is Sylviaâs The suffragette movement that has become the dominant narrative not only about the suffragette movement but also about Pankhurst family life.2 One thing on which all three sisters agreed, however, was that as children their lives were not kept separate from the social reform interests of their parents. In Rebecca Westâs memorable words, they âbobbed like corks on the tide of adult lifeâ, attending political meetings and handing out political leaflets.3
Richard, the dutiful son of a Baptist auctioneer and his wife, Margaret, had moved from Stoke-on-Trent to Manchester in 1847. Educated at Manchester Grammar School and then Owenâs College (later Manchester University), he had been barred from attending Oxford University because of his Nonconformity. Undeterred, the gifted Richard then became a student at London University from which he graduated in 1859 with a Bachelor of Law and then a Doctorate and Gold Medal, in 1863. After being called to the Bar in 1867, he joined the Northern Circuit, based in Manchester.4
p.12
Of below medium height for a man of his time, with a high-pitched shrill voice, gold-red beard, a broad, lofty forehead crowned by a mane of ruddy hair and small, blue-grey, twinkling eyes, Richard Pankhurst was not considered particularly handsome. Yet he was regarded as not only a learned man but also an eloquent speaker, both in the law courts and on great civic occasions. A convinced republican and anti-imperialist, he was a member of the Liberal Party but regarded as a political extremist. Fired by a mission to end injustices in society, he supported unpopular causes such as free state education for working-class children, the abolition of the House of Lords, nationalisation of the land, the abolition of slavery, womenâs suffrage and international peace. The local newspapers affectionately referred to him as âour learned Doctorâ or the âRed Doctorâ.5
Richard was an admirer of John Stuart Mill who, as an MP, had unsuccessfully suggested a womenâs suffrage amendment to the 1867 Reform Bill which extended the parliamentary franchise only to all male householders and men paying more than ten pounds in annual rent in the boroughs.6 Much to Richardâs annoyance, Millsâ statement had been greeted with laughter and cheers. A member of the Executive Committee of the Manchester Committee for the Enfranchisement of Women, Richardâs support for womenâs suffrage included, among other activities, acting as counsel in the 1869 case for the right of women to be placed on the parliamentary voting register (known as Chorlton v. Lings), and drafting the first bill aimed at giving women the vote, introduced unsuccessfully in the House of Commons in 1870 by Jacob Bright, another radical Liberal MP.7
The earnest Dr Richard Pankhurst had resolved to remain single all his life for the sake of his public work. His good intentions, however, were turned upside down when, in 1879, he met the beautiful and spirited Emmeline Goulden. Despite the fact that the twenty-one-year-old Emmeline was young enough to be his daughter, Richard fell in love with her and was soon to make her his bride. âThey were made for one anotherâ, Christabel remembered affectionately in later years. âFather . . . found in her the woman who shared all his own thought and feeling about life, a helpmate as idealistic and self-regardless as he was.â8
Emmelineâs parents had always taken a keen interest in politics. Her father, Robert Goulden, a self-made businessman who had risen from a mere errand boy to a partnership in Seedley Printworks, a calico printing and bleaching business in Pendleton, Lancashire, had as a young man followed his own parents in protesting against the Corn Laws which, by imposing duties on imported foodstuffs to protect British producers, had made the cost of living soar for the working classes. After he married, Robert was the Liberal representative for some five or six years for the Seedley Ward of Salford Town Council, becoming a âfavourite with the working classesâ for the part he took in several agitations for the benefit of Salford ratepayers.9 With his wife Sophia Jane, born on the Isle of Man, he was also an ardent campaigner during the American Civil War for the abolition of slavery. Robert and Sophia Jane supported other advanced causes, including franchise reform. After all, the Isle of Man was independent from Britain and in 1881 had given women the parliamentary vote. Emmeline Goulden, the eldest and most precocious girl in a family of ten surviving children, not only listened to family political discussions from an early age but sometimes participated in political events. When just five years old she had collected pennies in a âlucky bagâ to help relieve the poverty of emancipated American slaves. The Womenâs Suffrage Journal was delivered to the Goulden household every week and at the age of fourteen, she begged her mother to take her to a womenâs suffrage meeting. âI left the meeting a conscious and confirmed suffragistâ, recollected the passionate Emmeline.10
p.13
Emmeline was sent to Paris, to one of the better âfinishingâ schools for middle-class girls that also offered some advanced instruction, the Ăcole Normale in the Avenue de Neuilly. She quickly became proficient in French as she explored Paris with her room-mate, Noemie Rochefort, only daughter of Henri Rochefort, the well-known republican, communist, journalist and swordsman. Henri, who had renounced his title of Marquis de Rochefort-Lucay, had narrowly escaped execution for his part in the commune uprising in Paris the previous year and Emmeline listened in awe to the stories about how the dashing Henri, whose whereabouts were still unknown, had dared all for his democratic, republican beliefs. It was the year after the Franco-Prussian war, and she saw all around her the battle scars of the conflict as well as the hatred of the defeated French towards the occupying power. From now on, Emmeline developed a deep love for France and a lifelong prejudice against all things German.11
After four years in Paris, Emmeline returned home an elegant young woman, having acquired a Parisian taste in dress and fluency in the French language.12 She found life at Seedley Cottage exceedingly dull and was delighted when she was allowed to accompany her younger sister, Mary, to the French capital where Mary, in her turn, would attend the Ăcole Normale. Noemie, now married to a Swiss artist and mother of a baby girl, was anxious that her dear friend Emmeline should marry too and settle near her. A willing suitor was found, provided the charming Emmeline would bring a dowry with her. However, when the prospective bride approached her father about the matter, Robert Goulden was furious. Declaring he would not âsellâ his daughter to any man, especially a foreigner, the enraged father summoned his daughter to come home immediately.13
In high dudgeon, the eighteen-year-old Emmeline returned to Manchester in the summer of 1879, accompanied by the discontented Mary whose wish to train as an actress had been sternly refused by their angry father. Matters did not improve when their mother insisted that they should make the home a welcoming place for her tall, handsome sons, who she feared might marry imprudently. The unhappy Emmeline later told Christabel that at this time in her life she wanted to do âsome great thingâ but was aware of the limited possibilities for middle-class daughters such as herself.14 She knew about Dr Richard Pankhurstâs work for social reform and so decided to accompany her parents to a meeting where he was speaking. When she saw him step out of his cab, greeted by cheers from the crowd, her heart leapt. Here was her hero, a fighter for just causes, so unlike the immature male friends of her brothers. Richard immediately noticed the strikingly beautiful young woman among the throng and was smitten. Bowled over by his attentions, and flattered that an older man who was a public figure should have any interest in her, Emmeline headily returned his affection.15
p.14
During their short engagement, Richard wrote to his beloved on 23 September 1879, speaking not only of their joyous love but also of their shared, wider desire for social reform. âIn all my happiness with you, I feel most deeply the responsibilities gathering round us . . . Every struggling cause shall be ours.â16 They were married on 18 December 1879. Passionately in love, it is highly likely that Christabel was conceived on their wedding night since she was born j...
